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Virgin Australia Supports Australian Travellers with Extra Services

19/10/2011

Virgin Australia Supports Australian Travellers with Extra Services

BRISBANE 19 October 2011: Virgin Australia group of airlines CEO John Borghetti today confirmed the airline would provide additional capacity over the coming months to meet market requirements and to minimise the impact of ongoing Qantas industrial action on the Australian travel and tourism industry.

“Over the last three months, we have increased our capacity around Australia, adding more than 31,000 seats each week including expanding our presence in the very important Perth market where we have introduced wide body aircraft and Business Class seats.

“We have added more than 6,800 seats to Perth (we have 31,000 seats to Perth every week, with the Business Class product available on board all flights from the East Coast). We are very committed to this market and believe we have the capacity to support increased demand.

“In addition to this, we have already put plans in place to add extra capacity over the next few weeks, including 3,000 additional seats each week up to 30 October; and the addition of a fifth daily return service from Melbourne to Perth commencing 20 December adding a further 2,300 seats each week.

“We are also closely monitoring the Queensland market to ensure we can meet any additional capacity needs as this important tourism market rebuilds after the devastating floods and cyclones.

“We are well advanced in discussions with alliance partners Etihad Airways and Air New Zealand on providing extra capacity from November, leading into the busy December and January holiday period. We will continue to work with all of our alliance partners who are keen to help us support the Australian travelling public and ensure tourism is not affected, both domestically and internationally.

“With our alliances in place*, Virgin Australia’s global network capacity share in and out of Australia is forecast to be around equal to that of oneworld in 2012.

“There will be no change to our pricing strategy during this time as we continue to offer competitively priced fares and conduct sale campaigns as planned with great prices for the summer holiday period - such as Sydney to the Gold Coast from $65** for the sale, and from $75 for other travel dates and Sydney-Perth from $169* for the sale, and from $198 for other travel dates,” Mr. Borghetti said.

Virgin Australia will provide more updates on capacity as necessary. Further information on Virgin Australia’s current sale fares is available at: http://www.virginaustralia.com/

* The alliance with Singapore Airlines is currently subject to regulatory approval

** Seats are on sale until midnight ESST 21 October 2011. Travel dates 1 December 2011 to 14 December 2011; and 11 January 2012 to 28 March 2012. Seats at sale prices are subject to availability.